We can work together to create a better world

Wednesday 8 April 2009 19.01 EDT
First published on Wednesday 8 April 2009 19.01 EDT

In five years' time there will be no such thing as a multiplayer mode. That isn't a prophecy of startling revisionism: we're not all going to go back to playing alone. It's just that games will stop making any kind of distinction between the "main" single-player mode, and the cordoned-off multiplayer options. It was never really a satisfactory arrangement - as soon as you annex an option you reduce the potential audience, and many gamers are wary of the multiplayer tag as they envisage a deathmatch nightmare zone filled with savage strangers. It doesn't have to be that way.

A few excellent titles are already pointing us in the right direction. Open-world driving games such as Test Drive Unlimited and Burnout Paradise let you enter an online race whenever you feel like it from the confines of the singleplayer world. And GTA IV gives you easy access to all the online stuff via the main game's virtual mobile phone. Ubisoft's Shaun White Snowboarding mixes things up even more - here, you can complete single-player objectives within an online environment populated by other players.

Another spin on this idea of seamless integration is drop-in co-op, where friends are able to turn up in someone else's game and start playing beside them. Gears of War 2, for example, will let a novice plop themselves into a campaign with a pal who's playing on the hardest difficulty: the game simply tweaks the new guy's damage and weapon accuracy stats so they can make a useful impact on the action. Similarly, in the forthcoming action RPG Sacred 2, you'll be able to nip out of your single-player quest, go online, help a mate through a tricky battle, then whiz back into your own game. Later this year, Aliens: Colonial Marines will feature four-player drop-in, drop-out co-op, which means groups of friends can nip in and out without having to commit to a whole evening of alien-blasting.

Released this week, EA's The Godfather II tie-in takes an extremely interesting angle. Here, in-game money that you earn in the multiplayer mode is transferred into the single-player quest, where it can be used to buy new weapons and thugs-for-hire. Also, you can take your AI-controlled "family members" out of the single-player experience and use them in online battles, thereby improving their stats. When you drop them back into the "main" game, they're much more powerful allies.

What the Wii has taught us is that, to garner true mainstream acceptance, the machinery of game design must be as invisible as possible. The whole concept of "game modes" - the provision of options even before you start playing - is anathema to most people. It's like having to decide the sort of programme you want to watch before switching on the TV. It's just not human nature.